SAO PAULO – CTBUH Brazil held its inaugural event “Toward Sustainable Verticalism” at the Millennium Convention Center on April 8th. The event was jointly held with Fiabci/Brasil, the local branch of the International Real Estate Federation.

Joseph Burns, former CTBUH Advisory Group member / Thornton Tomasetti, and audience.

With over 60 guests in attendance, the event had the participation of professional leaders, who presented and discussed different aspects of building tall and sustainability. This discussion comes at a very key moment, since the city of Sao Paulo is currently holding talks about tall building public policy in its master plan revision.

The first panel featured Joseph Burns, former CTBUH Advisory Group member and managing principal at Thornton Tomasetti, showing the structural strategies for the next tallest building in the world, the Kingdom Tower, and its sustainability implications. Rafael Gomes de Oliveira, CTBUH city representative for Sao Paulo, also from Thornton Tomasetti, talked about the history and future of tall buildings in Brazil. The panel was moderated by Antonio Macêdo, CTBUH country representative for Brazil and Director, Ecobuilding.

Eng. Paulo Helene, PhD Engenharia

Eng. Mário Franco, JKMF

In the next session, engineers Paulo Helene of PhD Engenharia and Mario Franco of JKMF, two leading local engineering offices, gave excellent talks about the impact of high-performance concrete on sustainability, and the effects of incremental analysis and long-term deformations, respectively. Moderator Hamilton Leite, director of sustainability for Secovi-SP, helped steer the discussion with the two engineers.

Cathy Yang, CTBUH trustee / Taipei 101, and Basilio Jafet, Fiabci/Brasil, participate in a discussion to close the event

The closing session featured Cathy Yang, CTBUH trustee and general manager of Taipei 101, who kindly flew 29 hours one-way to give her presentation, describing the alterations the iconic building went through in order to become one of the “greenest” tall buildings in the world. Basilio Jafet, president of Fiabci/Brasil, closed the event by moderating a conversation with Yang.

The presentations varied in nature and captured the essence of the CTBUH mission of promoting international and interdisciplinary dialogue. At the launch event, the CTBUH Brazil chapter leaders also announced they are planning to take a delegation of Brazilian professionals to attend the 2014 CTBUH International Conference in Shanghai, in September. For more information, email brazil@ctbuh.org.